


Hold your breath

by 7years



Series: 7 years of Septober drabbles [5]
Category: SF9 (Band)
Genre: Folklore, Gen, Selkie!Chanhee, in my defense I was half-asleep while writing and posting this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:00:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27093199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/7years/pseuds/7years
Summary: Chanhee believed in the stories told to him since he can remember, but today is the day he might just become a part of those stories.
Series: 7 years of Septober drabbles [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1953925
Comments: 4
Kudos: 8
Collections: Septober 2020





	Hold your breath

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt #5 of Septober 2020: Weightless

Chanhee could stay here forever. Underneath the waves all his worldly inhibitions dissolve away. He has no fear, no responsibility, no purpose to his existence except to just be. A small speck in the vast universe.

Maybe he _had_ been here forever, he’s not sure. There’s no sense of time; he’s just drifting along the current of this dream, weightless and free.

Small fishes swim into his field of view, slow and lazy, taunting him to chase them. Chanhee thinks that he can catch them if he tries, but he lets them go. Some bigger creatures are heading his way, causing the school of fish in front of their path to scatter.

They’re seals. Large and small, grey and white; they’re all swimming around him, welcoming him. He returns the greetings and swims with them. _This is what I’ve been missing out on all my life_ , he thinks as they glide through the water effortlessly. He had never felt more free.

His new companions ask him to join them in their journey to a faraway place, and Chanhee doesn’t see why not. He is, after all, one of them. There is nothing holding him back.

“Chanhee!”

Except for Youngbin.

His brother rarely interrupts his dream unless it’s for something important. He should probably wake up now.

“Chanhee!”

 _I’m up_ , Chanhee wants to say, but he’s still there in the water amongst the seals. He swims towards the surface, sure that he’ll open his eyes as soon as he reaches it. He’s faster than he thinks his flippers are capable of, and he unconsciously braces himself for impact near the surface.

His head breaches the surface, but instead of waking up in his room and seeing Youngbin, he’s looking around at a twilight sky. He can see Youngbin, but he’s all the way across the water.

At the shore.

While he’s still here…

Shit.

Chanhee swims towards the shore as fast as his flippers can take him. He remembers it now, though it feels like a distant dream, or more like imagining someone else’s dream. He had taken out and worn the coat himself. He had walked to the beach and plunged into the dark, cold water without any hesitation, following an indescribable pull.

“Chanhee?”

 _I’m here!_ Chanhee wants to shout, but he’s unable to produce any sound. The other seals– no, _selkies_ are catching up to him, still graceful in their movements as they pursue him. But they’re not trying to stop him, he realizes. They are probably just curious to see what made him change his mind.

Deep down Chanhee can feel a tiny bit of regret that he won’t be returning to his kind today (or ever), but he knows he would always choose being with his family over the selkies any day. He might be a creature of the sea, but on land is where he belongs.

**Author's Note:**

> I usually say thank you for reading but this time I'm not only thankful but also apologetic that you've read it until the end ^^' I'm not sure what compelled me to write (and post) this jumbled collection of words that try so hard to make sense. But if you survived, thank you. And I'm sorry.
> 
> The story is inspired by the movie [Song of the Sea](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7ZIugIa8KI) (great story and beautiful animation, highly recommended ♡ please don't be put off by this drabble)


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